Hello and welcome to montrealgazette.com and welcome to Midday. Here’s the rundown on some of the stories we’re following for you today.

Many of the 30 people missing in a fatal fire in a seniors residence northeast of Quebec City had limited movement and were confined to wheelchairs and walkers. This morning’s blaze in L’Isle-Verte, about 240 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, killed three people, although authorities fear the death toll will climb. About 30 people are unaccounted for. Acting mayor Ginette Caron says only five residents in the 52-unit centre were fully autonomous. She told a news conference this morning the others could not get around and that some had Alzheimer’s disease. At least three people were injured in the blaze. Mario Michaud, who lives across the street from the building, said he witnessed the unfolding drama shortly after midnight. “I got up to go to the toilet and I saw smoke,” Michaud told local newspaper Info Dimanche. “The fire had started on the second floor. I woke up my girlfriend and called 911. I saw the firefighters and they got to work. “A woman on the second floor was shouting and she went out on to the balcony. Her son went to get a ladder but he couldn’t get to her. She burned to death.” Local chief firefighter Yvon Charron called it “a night from hell.”

Despite opposition calls for her to resign, or at least be suspended, pending clarification of her actions, Élaine Zakaïb, industrial policy minister in the Parti Québécois government, said Wednesday night she did nothing wrong and will stay on as a minister. In 2009 wiretap evidence aired at the Charbonneau Commission on Wednesday, Zakaïb, who at the time headed the FTQ Solidarity Fund’s regional investments arm, told FTQ president and Solidarity Fund chairman Michel Arsenault that investment projects proposed by competitors of Tony Accurso had been blocked. And Zakaïb told Arsenault, “The less I know, the better.” But at a hastily called news conference in the capital, Zakaïb told reporters that Jean Lavallée and Jocelyn Dupuis, heavyweights in the FTQ Construction wing, had blocked contracts proposed by Accurso’s competitors. “I put an end to it,” she said, adding she acted in “complete integrity.” Zakaïb said she met Accurso, the former kingpin of Quebec construction who now faces criminal charges, maybe twice and that she did not know then what now is known about Accurso, Lavallée and Dupuis.

Municipal leaders emerged from a meeting with Transport Minister Lisa Raitt on Wednesday determined to see railways, shippers and producers of dangerous goods assume full liability for accidents and spills. Ensuring rail companies are properly insured for even catastrophic events like last summer’s devastating crash in Lac-Megantic, Que., is the next major hurdle in fixing the system, Claude Dauphin, the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said in an interview.”It’s on the table. That’s our third key area — to make sure that any accident, incident or catastrophe won’t be downloaded to our taxpayers.” That could include a fund that spreads the liability for major disasters — currently shouldered largely by railways — across the full supply chain, from producers to consumers.

And finally, it wasn’t that Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard played poorly in Thursday’s Australian Open semifinal. It was just that her opponent didn’t let her play.The 19-year-old’s dream run ended as she was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Li Na of China, an experienced competitor 12 years her senior who simply had too much firepower. Li, a singles finalist here a year ago and the 2011 French Open champion, will be in the Australian Open final again — and this time she’ll be the favourite against No. 20 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, a 6-1, 6-2 upset winner against fifth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the other semifinal Thursday. In the process, she did to Bouchard what the native of Westmount, Que., had so often done to her opponents in her first five matches of the tournament, racing to a 5-0 lead in the first set before Bouchard even had time to settle in.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.